Category: wildlife

advocacy, community activities, geology, wildlife

Markleeville Musings – Here and There on Hump Day

BLUE and I were on a ride just last week where I took this image of him goofing off a bit near Monitor Junction. ‘Twas a beautiful spring day and the excitement of getting outside took over so he made the leap up and hung out for a bit. 😉

It was a big jump but he made it!
Taking a break near the Chalmer’s cemetary on the same day.

A Bit Of Easter Anyone?

IT was wonderful to get together with family over the Easter holiday. First time the crew has made it up here to the heart of the California Alps since that virus reared its ugly head.

Exact opposite of ugly…

Our two Grand Nieces post-egg hunt. Was an awesome weekend of eats, walks, laughs and eggs. Hope you and yours had loads of bunny-fun, too!

Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC)

The goals of the D10 BPAC align with Caltrans’ core values: Engagement, Equity, Innovation, Integrity, and Pride, as well as Caltrans’ three foundational principles: Safety, Equity and Climate Action.

Bob Highfill – Public Information Officer, Caltrans District 10

CALTRANS District 10 hosted the second meeting of this groundbreaking committee on April 13th and yours truly did a presentation for the group about the Tamarack and Caldor Fires recovery efforts happening here in Alpine County.

BASED on comments in the chat (yup, was a virtual meeting), the presentation was an eye-opener for those who had not seen the damage, and was well received. Lots to do still, but lots has been done already, including some tree planting, seeding and of course dead tree 🙁 removal.

SPEAKING of tree planting…I’ll be joining a bunch of other volunteers this Sunday, May 1st, for another round of seedling sowing.

CONGRATS by the way to Charles Carroll, Associate Transportation Planner at District 10, on being elected Chair of the committee. Applause as well to Rob Williams, of the Motherlode Bicycle Coaltion, on being elected Vice-Chair.

CALTRANS’ Carson Transportation Management Systems Project

Speaking of Caltrans…It held a virual public meeting last week about this project, which “proposes to install traffic management systems and roadside safety improvements in and around the Kirkwood and Carson Pass area at 13 various locations in Amador, El Dorado, and Alpine Counties on State Routes 88, 89, and 4. The scope of work includes changeable message signs, streetlights, vehicle detection systems, closed-circuit television camera systems, roadway weather information systems, highway advisory radios, extinguishable message signs, and maintenance vehicle pullouts.”

SPEAKING of eye-opening…PUBLIC comment was vociferous, especially regarding the signage and the impact those signs would have on areas such as Hope Valley and Markleeville.

COMMENTS are due by May 2nd so if you have something to say about it, let Caltrans know.

Ebbetts And Monitor Passes

ON my ride last week (the same one that I snagged those pix of Blue playing hangbike) the gates were closed at Monitor Junction so no cars could make their way over the passes. Bikes on the other hand…

LET’S just say that I can understand why Hwy. 4 is still closed.

Levels of sediment and rocks showing on Hwy. 4, likely from the Carson as it cut its way through thousands of years ago. Rocks and boulders have come down and can be seen along the side of the highway.

Quite a bit of rockfall (the boulder detritus on the road is just out of frame in the pic. above) and some trees down on the road as well. Since we received some weather here recently I’m guessing there is still some snow up there to be cleared, too.

MRS. California Alps just got back from S. Lake Tahoe and she let me know that signage there indicates Monitor Pass is open. My bet is that Ebbetts will also open soon, perhaps this weekend.

Speaking Of Weather

I caught these quail sheltering from the snow last week. Can you say “hunkered down?”

Last But Not Least

IN yet another sign of spring we spotted this bruin heading towards town on Monday.

Looking pretty porky so early in the season I must say, but hey, that’s how I felt after Easter. Burp.

MY uncle and I spotted this violet springing forth from the ash while on a hike Easter Sunday near HQ.

Happy hump day to you! Have a great backslide into the weekend, and an even better weekend!

mountain bikes, rides, wildlife

Fat Tire Fun, Some Mug Shots and a Special Sighting

WHILE we were hoping that the storm of a couple weeks ago was going to open that storm door, alas that has yet to happen. We’ve gotten a drizzle here and there (a whopping .01 inches of rain yesterday) and some snivelings of snow, but the “big white” has yet to materialize.

THERE is, however, a glimmer of hope. We’ve got a system coming in tomorrow, and last week, on one of my usual rides – the cattle guard just below the 7000′ mark – there was still a bit of snow on Highway 4. The gate at Wolf Creek Road was closed (and Ebbett’s Pass remains closed as well).

A few of us, including a silver-haired stud-muffin who was coming up as I was headed down, took advantage though, and enjoyed that car-free zone.

Fat Tire Fun on the Middle Fork

FARLEY was a happy camper, as was his rider, during our little jaunt up to Grover Hot Springs State Park and requisite trek back towards the village, this time though via the banks of Hot Springs Creek. Formerly known, at least that’s the local lore – I’ve got to look that up – as the middle-fork of the Carson River, it’s a sweet little burbling brook of a stream.

Nice ride, that fire-tire bike… So forgiving on just about anything. Trek isn’t kidding IMO about it being the mountain bikers fat-bike. Very nimble. Light action, too, and as for mud…What mud?

WHAT I think would have been an issue, certainly on the gravel bike and perhaps even on the MTB, (see this “peanut butter post”) was nuffin’ for those puffy tires on Farley.

I can’t wait to get him out on the snow. Perhaps you’d like to join me? Hit me up and let’s make a plan!

Markleeville Mug Shots

WE pulled these just today from the wildlife camera behind the chalet.

THIS hambone we’ve named “Little Blackie” (after the heroine’s horse in True Grit – either version); that image in the left frame helps me cast my mind back to that Louis Gossett, Jr. line in “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

Stop eyeballing me, bear!

A Special Sighting

OUR resilient river (or creek, depending…) never stops surprising us. We get special sightings almost every day. A Great-Blue Heron cruises us regularly, a Belted-Kingfisher, too. And just last week it appeared to be more of a boiling caldron of black goo. Okay, maybe a little hyperbole but not too far off, really.

OTTERS, though? That one I wasn’t expecting. Okay, full disclosure…only one otter, but still, it really was a river otter! Right there. On our river. Of course I didn’t have a camera, or a phone, and it was too far away to get captured on the wildlife cam.

otter drifting on log on river
Photo by David Selbert on Pexels.com

THAT’s not my picture, no. Was definitely one of those, though. No, it was not a beaver, Mom. I can say so without any qualm.

SHE’S such a skeptic.

IT was a wild week indeed, here in the California Alps.

Here’s hoping you had a wild one too (in a good way), and that the coming week brings you many pleasant surprises.

fire, weather, wildlife, wind

What’s Happening Here in Markleeville Since the Tamarack Fire? Here’s Some News

IT’S Monday night, August 30th, and I’m thinking about what’s happening here in the California Alps, which includes one of the jewels of the world, Lake Tahoe. These fires…it’s surreal and they’re taking on an almost human quality. Or should I say a demon quality?

I’M a firm believer in balance and so I understand, and welcome in the right circumstances, fire. And water (thinking of you New Orleans). I also believe that we are reaping what we have sewn. Not going to go there – down that “climate change is here, damnit” path – that is. Oh wait…

SO, as I was saying. Life around here since July 16th has been strange. Scary, anxiety-ridden, angry, sad, happy, fulfilling, disappointing, unhappy, pissed-off, irritated, STRANGE. I don’t recall ever feeling such a range of emotions over such a short period of time.

NONETHELESS, life goes on. And we go on and try to be normal as best we can. Since Sunday, we’ve had these little windows of fresh air in the middle of this smoke-filled firestorm that has seemingly targeted the area.

GREEN AQI all day today, for example. It’s eery…Just a few miles away, to our northwest, is a nasty looking smoke plume from the Caldor Fire. I took the pic at the top of this post yesterday (Sunday), on my way home from a ride up Hwy. 4. There was a “good-air window” and I took it. I cut the ride short, though, as the smoke seemed to be pushing in. That is what I saw from Monitor Junction on my way back to HQ.

This is what I saw this morning, looking north towards Lake Tahoe from Hwy 4. at Raymond Meadow Creek.

If you look closely you can see the smoky haze in the distance.

OH shit. That doesn’t look good, I said to myself. Been saying that a lot lately…Also been attending a lot of live fire-briefing events on Facebook.

AND constantly checking Twitter or other sources for the latest intel while trying to separate the wheat from the chaff as I go.

NEVERENDING. And last night, Mrs. California Alps Cycling and I began thinking about yet another evacuation. Just 6 miles away, in the Mesa Vista area of Alpine Co., they’re on an evacuation warning. The fire has reached Christmas Valley and has made its way into South Lake Tahoe so the way things are going, we figure, we could be under evacuation warnings sometime soon ourselves. Hopefully not but we are getting good at it. Something I hoped I’d never say.

In Other News…

OUR internet is working again and that’s making life much more liveable. I remember when internet was a nice-to-have (yes, I’m old…er) but today it’s a must have, IMHO. Yet so many people less fortunate than I don’t have it. We learned through this experience that good internet (and cell service) is as necessary as power and water. Eye-opening for sure.

THE Markleeville General Store is still closed. 🙁 Sad but true. Repairs and such post-fire.

OUTWEST Cafe, as well as the Toll Station, and the Cutthroat, are open.

FISHING is pretty much non-existent. There have been no plants since before the fire and there is hardly any camping here since our national forests are closed, but the Carson River Resort is open and based on what I’ve heard, pretty booked up.

AIR quality? you ask. We feel guilty. Honestly. The air here has been great this entire week. What I saw Sunday never made it any farther south and I got out for a ride this morning. It was so pretty I almost forgot what was happening in South Lake.

RED flag warnings there (and here too), but the wind that is making the Caldor Fire do what it’s doing is pushing the smoke to our north and east.

This was a/o 2:45 p.m. today.

WATER is an issue, too. Since our watershed was hammered pretty hard, and we have limited resources, at this point we’re on water restrictions with limited outside watering. Thankfully that recently changed. Up until about ten (10) days ago landscape watering was not allowed at all. Small (yet big) victory.

WE’VE been invaded by bears! Well that’s not really true. They were here first. Nevertheless they are more prevalent and getting a bit more brave. Earlier this week my neighbor’s car was torn up pretty well. First time since we’ve lived here that I’ve seen that.

THEY, like other fauna, are hungry and since so much of the surrounding forest was torched, animals and birds are coming to any oases they can find. Lucky us (kinda), we’ve got one. The wild-turkeys, with their youngins, are especially welcome.

With That Said…

WE’RE thinking about our friends and neighbors here in Alpine Co. (some of the county are on evac. warnings due to the Caldor Fire) and everyone else who has been effected by “our fire” as well as the Caldor Fire, and other fires raging, mostly in the west.

LIFE will get back to normal at some point. The new-normal I guess. Whatever that is.

birding, fishing, gravel, rides, wildlife

It’s Another Springtime Thang Here in Markleeville

WE’VE been in denial here at California Alps Cycling HQ, aka Chalet Schwartz. Well, at least we were. Not anymore, though. Reality has set in and so has spring!

WHILE we had hoped for a miracle March, unfortunately we had no such luck, and so we’ll just have to accept the fact that spring has come to the California Alps (and elsewhere). It’s a tough thing, enduring spring here in the heart of the Sierra but we’ll just have to persevere.

The Birds are Back in Town!

IT all starting hitting home, so to speak, last Thursday evening as our local coyote – we named it Wiley of course – made its way along Hot Springs Creek and our meadow, without having to trudge through the ice and snow that recently finished its ritual thaw.

FRIDAY brought in our resident pair of California quail and on the same day we saw the chickens. No, not wild chickens. They belong to our neighbors (Linda & Gordy) just west of us and they let the girls out to scratch around the meadow. It seems though that they’re doing it just a bit more gleefully than usual.

THAT same day, the hummers showed up. Anna’s first, as is the norm, but soon the Rufous’ and Calliopes will be here.

THE Mallards too, have arrived. Mrs. Mallard is just out of the frame as Drake Mallard stands guard.

ROBINS, crows and Steller’s jays are all gathering nesting material and the chipmunks and ground squirrels have recently come out of hibernation, too. No bears yet but I’m sure that will change soon enough. And, we’ve got flickers, turkeys, herons, vultures and dippers as well!

YUP, in case you didn’t know before, you do now. This is a great place to do a bit of birding.

Ahh, Riding With Less Layering

MY gravel bike ride up Hwy. 4 (towards Monitor Pass) to, and a bit up Leviathan Mine Road on Sunday was glorious! There were a few other riders taking advantage of the closed road, too. I did have a chance to connect with one rider who had just come down from the pass. Clear all the way to the top, he said.

Whispy clouds over the Carson-Iceberg, and Hwy. 89, as seen from just above Heenan Lake.

THE gate will soon be open (saw those gigantic snow blowers on the side of the road Sunday) and then it’s just a matter of time before Ebbetts (and other Sierra passes) opens too.

YESTERDAY I partook of my second gravel ride of the spring season – a short but sweet trip up to, and in, Grover Hot Springs State Park.

AS you can see, the sky was as blue as my jersey and both Roscoe and I were very happy to be gravelin’.

Can You Say Fishing?

FISHMAS starts April 24th but that hasn’t prevented people from fishing now. The river is a bit chocolately (another sign of spring) but it should soon be its clear, cool, self. Click here for a few more particulars courtesy of the Alpine County Chamber of Commerce.

  • Chocolate milk or no…they’re fishing!
  • The water levels are rising and so is the sediment!

ALPINE county will soon be opening up to the public I’ve heard and we’re all excited to welcome you!

SOCIAL distancing and masking is still required inside our businesses but it’s pretty easy to deal with when outside, and there’s lots of outside here in Alpine Co.

OOPS, I almost forgot to mention the spring wildflowers that will soon be popping. Don’t miss that either!

BE safe, stay healthy, travel respectfully, and we hope to see you soon.

things to do, things to see, wildlife

And Now for Something Completely Different…

Since this is a blog that is pretty much devoted to all things cycling, it is a rare day, and a challenging one, when other than mentioning cycling in this paragraph, I don’t mention cycling, or mountain biking, or gravel riding, or something related thereto in the remainder of the post.

Okay, I’m glad I got that out of my system.

‘Twas This Bear That Made Us Go There

Hey Boo-boo…Where’s that pic-a-nic basket?

Or not go there, if you will. Our friendly neighborhood bear (one of them anyway) has visited us quite a bit this summer and fall and was the inspiration behind this “different post.” We’re pretty sure it’s one of two, approximately 3-year old cubs (are they still cubs at that age?), but we’re not sure if it’s the formerly golden fleeced cub we’ve shown you before, or its sibling. As you can see it’s a well-fed bear and it appears to be ready for the winter hibernation. Looking closely at the video you’ll notice that it does eyeball the bird seed-feeder (aka bear crack) that is hanging from the stair landing rail on its way up to see about that picnic basket.

The black bins that it sniffs are full of recycling and it now knows (because it has opened them previously) that there are no grinds in there. As it approaches the window we think it got wind of, or heard, my wife working inside at the dining room table, hence the abrupt turnaround and departure. The feeder, by the way, is taken in every night. Yup, if you’re going to do the seed-feeder ‘thang in bear country you’ve got to be diligent.

We remind ourselves often that yes, we do live in bear country, and to be honest we think that’s pretty cool, but it does come with responsibility. We don’t feed the bears and do chase them away when we see them.

Loope Canyon and Leviathan Mine Road Recon

In case you hadn’t guessed it, I’m switching tacks now.

This past Monday the little woman and I decided to do a bit of 4-wheelin’ and explore a couple of local fire roads that we thought might have some potential. Loope Canyon Road intersects with Highway 89 (on the way to Monitor Pass from the western side) as does Leviathan Mine Road, and as it turns out Loope Canyon also intesects directly with Leviathan Mine Road. Since I am not mentioning “you-know-what” in this post I won’t say that it might be a good route for well…you know.

Various images, one with the fall color vibe, taken from Loope Canyon Road and Leviathan Mine Road.

We were able to travel from Loope Canyon Road (some pretty nasty gravel, er rocks, on that bit let me tell you) to Leviathan Mine Road (much nicer, fairly graded road with one exception) and from there we made our way to U.S. Highway 395 in Nevada.

This oil drum, by the way, is on Leviathan Mine Road at the CA/NV border. It seems appropriate, and a bit hilarious we thought, that it is shot full of holes.

The entire route was about 22 miles with over 3000 feet of elevation gain. The section from 395 up to Highway 89 (just above Heenan Lake) covered almost 15 miles and included about 2000 feet of climbing. Some possibilities we think; just need to figure out whether we do a loop, a hill climb or something in between. Won’t be this year so we’ve got some time to figure it out. If you have any suggestions do feel free to share!

In the meantime I’ll leave you with these views from HQ of Hot Springs Creek, aka the middle fork of the Carson River. It’s low but it’s still flowing and today a flock of Pinyon Jays decided to do a group dunk and preening session. Ahh, fall…my favorite season here in the California Alps…

  • Hot Springs Creek – looking downstream
  • Hot Springs Creek – looking upstream

We wish you and yours well and hope you’re successfully weathering the various storms, some figurative, some literal, that are taking place in our world today.

Please stay healthy and safe!

birdwatching, science, things to see, wildlife

A Walk on the Wildlife Side

As a follow up to my last post, and since we recently installed a wildlife camera here at California Alps Cycling HQ, I thought I’d regale you with some photos of the wild things that we see here in the California Alps.

Left image taken in 2017. I was riding home from town after a meeting and it was coming right up the road! As I approached it went up the embankment and posed for me. Same bear (I think) on the right, later that year.

We’ve seen bears since but due to the last couple of good winters they haven’t been quite so visible.
Here’s “Yogi” in action!

This time of year we see more eagles than usual. While there are a couple regular mating pairs of baldies at two (2) of our local lakes, during the winter we tend to see more of them, as well as some Goldens (alas, no good pix of them yet) due to the calf-birthing that takes place nearby in Carson (aka Eagle) Valley. They are here for the after-birth (births?). Yeah, somewhat gross but I like the fact that the eagles don’t mind cleaning up after the mama-cows. I suspect the ranchers like it too – nothing worse than stepping in a gut-pile!

The bald eagle on the left was flying over Heenan Lake last spring and the one on the right (you’ll need to squint or zoom) was taken New Year’s Day this year, near Genoa.

We’ve got a rafter of wild turkeys that hang out nearby too. While I am a hunter (and have taken one in the past) I don’t hunt anything here on the property – we enjoy the company too much. I can’t speak for the resident coyote(s) though.

Many people don’t know that if Benjamin Franklin had his way the wild turkey would be our national bird. While they are beautiful birds (and big too), and have the vision of an eagle, I personally think the Founding Fathers made the right choice.

Speaking of coyotes…There’s a sizable number of them here in Markleeville and they’ve been known to work together to take outdoor pets. Just last week we saw three (3) of them here at HQ just after dusk. Last summer, one of them took one of our neighbor’s chickens. They are wiley (pun intended) suckers.

Caught this guy on our wildlife camera just last week.
SQUIRREL!
Looks like it’s thinking about what to do next or perhaps trying to figure out where it put those pine nuts.

We’re pretty sure we’ve got a mountain lion in the area and so I’m hoping to get a shot of it soon. I’ll keep you posted!

Evidence of a lion? We think so. These photos were taken earlier this month.

We knew there were WILD animals here, no doubt, but to see them, or evidence of them, in person, makes it much more real. Have any photos of wildlife you’ve taken while on a ride or hike in the California Alps? Feel free to post them on our Facebook page (@bikedalps) if so!

Stay wild my friends, and ride safe!